Season 2010 - Official AFL Website of the Sydney Swans Football Club

Sydney has ended the longest premiership drought in AFL history in the most emotional and heart-stopping fashion imaginable by beating the West Coast Eagles by four points in the most exciting and closest grand final for nearly 40 years.

Incredibly the outcome of the entire season came down to the last second of the game when the Eagles, trailing by four points, had one last chance to win the grand final when ruckman Dean Cox pumped the ball forward to within 30 metres of goal as a huge pack flew for the mark.

A crowd of just under 92,000 fans held their breath and it was Sydney's courageous defender Leo Barry who assured himself a place in AFL folklore for ever by taking a magnificent mark to ensure the Swans hung on to win their first premiership since 1933.

The Swans won 8.10 (58) to 7.12 (54) in the lowest-scoring grand final since 1968, but what the game lacked in goals it more than made up for with pure courage as both teams simply refused to surrender in the kind of premiership decider seen so rarely in the AFL in modern times.

Indeed only St Kilda's one point win over Collingwood in the 1966 grand final, which gave the Saints their one and only premiership, could probably rival this grand final for emotion and excitement as Sydney showed a champion team will always beat a team of champions.

While the Eagles' star players such as Chris Judd, who won the Norm Smith Medal for best afield with 29 posssessions, skipper Ben Cousins (27 possessions), ruckman Cox and defender David Wirrpunda, who was superb under enormous pressure all day, starred - the Eagles simply did not have enough contributors overall while Sydney - as they have done all year - relied on the entire team to simply lift the club, that united two cities in triumph on Saturday, to victory.

The Swans' pre-match banner read "Two cities, one team, together living a dream" and that is exactly how it turned out as old South Melbourne fans - so used to decades of heartbreak - and Sydney fans, celebrating the club's first flag since moving to the Harbour City in 1982 - went mad with joy in unison as the final siren sounded.

The result means every state in the AFL's truly national competition has now tasted premiership success and no-one deserves the triumph more than Swans' coach Paul Roos, who finally has a premiership medal after missing out during his 356 game career as a player when the closest he came was being a part of the Swans' losing 1996 grand final side.

But Roos, renowned as one of the coolest customers in the AFL, must have had almost had a heart attack in the incredible final quarter, in which both teams threatened to win the game and then threatened to self-destruct under the most fierce pressure imaginable.

The Swans set up their win with a great first half as they restricted the Eagles to just 2.7 - the lowest score in the first half of a grand final since Carlton in 1969.

Sydney led by 20 points at half-time after keeping the Eagles' goalless in the second term as West Coast's lack of forwards really came back to haunt them after leading goalkicker Phil Matera was a late withdrawal as expected with a groin injury, while second leading goalkicker Quinten Lynch was only an emergency after being dropped for last week's preliminary final.

However Eagles coach John Worsfold swung Adam Hunter forward in the third term and the move worked as Hunter kicked one goal and a had a hand in another as the Eagles booted three goals to nil for the term to cut the margin to just two points at the final change.

That would set up a final quarter that is probably deserving of an entire book being written about it alone and it was the Swans who threatened to self-destruct when Luke Ablett kicked straight across goal just 15 metres out and instead only found Cousins, who goaled to put the Eagles' in front for the first time since the first quarter.

And when Hunter kicked his second goal at the six minute mark, the Eagles were ten points up and looking as though they had the momentum.

However Sydney skipper Barry Hall, who had played superbly all day even though most of his game-high ten marks were taken up the ground, goaled from 50 metres after marking to cut the margin to four points at the nine minute mark.

Hall's partner in attack Michael O'Loughlin then made a meal of several chances to put the Swans back in front and they were lucky not to be punished when Brent Staker fumbled when he ran onto a loose ball - with an open goal beckoning - halfway through the term before later giving away an unnecessary 50 metre penalty in the dying minutes which enabled the Swans to clear the ball out of their defence.

Daniel Kerr then missed a snap and Drew Banfield, the only survivor from the Eagles' 1994 premiership win, hit the post on the run as the Eagles stretched their lead to five points, but both misses would be crucial.

With just under eight minutes to go, the game was crying out for a hero to win the game for either side and it was Amon Buchanan and ultimately Leo Barry that would step forward for the Swans.

Buchanan booted the goal that would be the matchwinner when he snapped brilliantly on his right foot, after a ball-up, from 20 metres out at the 19 minute mark as the Swans suddenly led by a point.

It would be the last goal of the game as players from both sides threw themselves into packs and fought for contested balls in an amazing show of courage and Sydney missed chances to seal the game when Jude Bolton - who was superb in the final term - Ryan O'Keefe, Paul Williams and Adam Goodes all scored behinds.

The Swans were dominating and keeping the ball inside their forward 50 as the seconds ticked away but one sensed the Eagles would have one last chance to win the game and when Cox drove the ball forward, it was do or die for West Coast but Leo Barry then took a mark that is sure to be talked about by not just all Swans fans but all football fans for decades to come as Sydney was crowned the premiers of 2005.

Swans coach Paul Roos said it was impossible to put into words "just how special" the win was, particularly as it meant the end of a 72-year drought. He also said it was the culmination of a career spanning 25 years and more than 400 games as a player and coach.

"I am forever indebted to the players, coaches, medical and fitness staff. There is no group of players more deserving to win a flag than the Swans. We were dead and buried, but we recovered to win the flag. It's phenomenal."

While reluctant to individualise, he singled out Barry for his heroics at the end. "That's why he's an All Australian and one of the best defenders in the competition."

West Coast coach John Worsfold defended his players and praised them for their efforts, but said they learned a painful lesson.

"They learned how tough it is. You can play well all year and not win a premiership."

He also bristled at suggestions that his side lacked match-winning key forwards. "We only fell four points short today and we finished ahead of 14 other sides."

SYDNEY: 3.0 6.3 6.5 8.10 (58)
WEST COAST: 2.4 2.7 5.9 7.12 (54)

GOALS - Sydney: Hall 2, Buchanan, Goodes, Jolly, Kennelly, O'Loughlin, Schneider
West Coast: Hunter 2, Cousins, Cox, Embley, Hansen, Nicoski
BEST - Sydney: Fosdike, Goodes, Barry, Hall, Roberts-Thomson, Kirk, Crouch, Buchanan
West Coast: Judd, Cox, Wirrpunda, Cousins, Hunter, Green
INJURIES - Sydney: Nil
West Coast: Nil
CHANGES - Sydney: Nil
West Coast: Matera (groin) replaced in selected side by Green.
REPORTS - Sydney Nil
West Coast: Nil
UMPIRES - Allen, Goldspink, McLaren
CROWD - 91,898 at the MCG

Barry Hall, Nick Davis, Ben Mathews, Ryan O’Keefe, Craig Bolton, Paul Williams, Nic Fosdike, Adam Schneider, Darren Jolly, Tadhg Kennelly, Michael O’Loughlin, Luke Ablett, Leo Barry, Jude Bolton, Sean Dempster, Jason Ball, Jared Crouch, Lewis Roberts-Thomson, Brett Kirk, Amon Buchanan, Adam Goodes, Paul Bevan.